When I started writing The Castle in the Glen I realized with surprise that I had only set one book in Scotland previously, and that was one of the early Royal Spyness books. So it was about time to remedy that, as Scotland creates the perfect setting for any book, especially one with some suspense.
The bleak mountains, the swirling mists, the lochs so deep that they may still hide monsters all help to provide a mysterious background. Scottish history of battles, Bonnie Prince Charlie fleeing to Skye, massacres in the heather, enhance the wild and mysterious setting.
There are the cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the former historic and genteel, the latter gritty. Then there are the quaint Scottish customs: bagpipes at dawn, haggis, men in kilts.
Scotland never fails to fascinate us, which is why so many writers have set their stories there.
Scotland has always been an appealing setting since Brigadoon graced the stage. A highland village that only appears from the mists once every hundred years. This time travel romance theme was enhanced by Diana Gabaldon with her Outlander series, now a popular TV show as well. I suppose the concept of being transported to a place out of time is appealing to all of us.
In recent years there has been a flourishing of Scottish mystery stories, some set in the bleak countryside, others in the more gritty cityscapes, creating the genre now called Tartan Noir.
The father of these is Ian Rankin with his Rebus books, set mainly in Edinburgh. Rebus the whisky-drinking loner.
If Ian is the father then Val McDermid is the mother of Tartan Noir. She also writes gritty dramas of Scottish life, now on TV as Wire in the Blood and then the Karen Pirie series.
In the city of Edinburgh but on the cozier side, Alexander McCall Smith sets his Sunday Philosophy Club and several other stories in Edinburgh where until recently he was a professor.
Also on the lighter side Catriona McPherson sets her Dandy Gilver series in Perthshire after WWI, all of them featuring aspects of Scottish life from a more upper class perspective. She also writes darker stand alone stories set in her native Scotland.
M.C. Beaton uses a highland setting for her Hamish McBeth series. He is a hapless police constable in a rural village. The books are charmingly cozy.
More edgy and with a great sense of place, Ann Cleeves writes a series set on the island of Shetland, the most northerly British community. Her protagonist is Jimmy Perez who grew up on even more remote Fair Isle and the stories revolve around the lives of the islanders.
I suppose I could say there are already enough good books set in Scotland but I felt compelled to set a story on the Isle of Skye where I once had adventures on bleak and craggy mountains with swirling mist (yes, I did try rock climbing long ago). The mountains and mist play a part in this new story in which a young writer is commissioned to finish a book for an elderly writer with dementia, only to find what was supposed to be fiction is a true story and somehow involves this writer.
I hope readers will enjoy being transported once more to another time and place in The Castle in the Glen and they will come to love the Island of Skye as I did.
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